Meet the Wild and Crazy Cast of MTV’s New Show ‘Winter Break: Hunter Mountain’

Eight total strangers locked away together in a mountainside cabin with a ton of alcohol — what could go wrong?

That’s the premise of MTV‘s newest reality TV show, Winter Break: Hunter Mountain, which promises plenty of wintertime drama to warm the soul this February.

The show, which premieres Feb. 27 at 10:30 p.m. ET, is set in the beautiful ski resort of Hunter Mountain, and promises conflict, winter sports and some drunken antics.

“The party moves from the beach to the mountains,” the show’s first promo proclaimed, showing footage of drinking, fighting and hooking up.

But what brings this diverse crew to Hunter Mountain? The cast opened up to Us Weekly about their motivation for appearing on the show. Keep scrolling to meet the cast and see what brings them to MTV’s newest reality show.

Taylar Shinn

The Oroville, California girl came to Hunter Mountain because she “felt very lost,” she told Us, and wasn’t sure what she wanted to do next in life.

“I needed to get away from all my problems and just live my life to the fullest … so I went to Hunter Mountain,” she said.

Jeffrey Brewer

Brewer, known in the house as J.Brew, told Us he “got a little irritated” when first moving into the MTV house, as he was under the impression he was “moving into a house of people that lived the snowboard lifestyle.”

It’s because of his sporty lifestyle that he got into it with one housemate in particular, Alessandra Camerlingo. “I just wasn’t sure what she was doing there,” he said.

Carissa Witham

The Connecticut native said she felt she “gypped herself” during her twenties by being too concentrated on school and her career, never letting herself “just live.”

Her time on Hunter Mountain gave her the opportunity to live it up, though. “I struggled between wanting to be free and the old me, that was serious,” she told Us. “It was a learning curve for me as a person.”

Jillian Metz

Metz admits she isn’t “that great” of a snowboarder, and added she thought she’d learn to get better as the show went on. But after getting injured early on, her time on the show strayed from the mountainside and more toward the romance.

“I fell for a snowboarder,” she told Us. “It’s a rollercoaster of emotions when I find out that he may or may not have a girlfriend.”

Alex Shinder

The New Jersey native known as Sheen said his role is typically “the entertainment value” in his group of friends, which is what he became on Hunter Mountain.

“I went into it knowing that I wanted to make new friends … and go absolutely nuts,” he told Us.

Alessandra Camerlingo

The least athletic of the Hunter Mountain group, Camerlingo admitted she was looking to escape her very conservative Italian family more than take to the mountain.

“I’m not like, a snowboarder, action sports type of girl,” she admitted to Us, adding she grew up skiing but her “skill level peaked at age 10.”

Marc Vindas

Vindas said he immediately warmed to the idea of heading up on a mountain with eight strangers.

“The lightbulb went on,” he told Us when he heard about the show. “They told me the two things I needed to do was party and snowboard … that’s exactly what I do.”

He also said to expect both “love and lust” on the show.

Taylor James

James, known as TJ in the house, said he entered the house ready to party and snowboard, making him an immediate friend of J. Brew’s.

However, girls also became a top interest for TJ, even though he was in an open relationship at home. “I was having fun, 100 percent. I was never looking for anything serious,” he told Us.

The cast on what separates them from other reality TV shows

Locking strangers in a house together with a lot of alcohol is a reality TV trope as old as The Real World. But the cast of Hunter Mountain insist their show breaks the mold.

“We’re just completely different people, all coming to the house for the same reason: To enjoy our life for the winter and experience this together and meet new friends,” Metz told HollywoodLife. “We had a lot of drama and we had all of our fights, but at the end of the day, we all came together and have our friendship. [The show] is hilarious. It’s different. It’s winter, so it’s a different scenery.”

“None of the other shows have ever been on the mountain,” Camerlingo added. “Some of us are super experienced mountain people and some of us aren’t, so it’s kind of funny to se the mix of how things went down when you mixed a lot of the different personalities in an isolated cabin in the woods.”

The cast stressed that because the eight of them are very different, a lot of drama is bound to arise. “We were all coming from different points in our lives and different times in our lives agewise,” Sheen said. “We each bring something different to the house — not everyone lives in the same way or has the same lifestyle, so to see that clash…it was very easy for that to happen. The learning curve was really what caused most of the drama.”

Winter Break: Hunter Mountain premieres Feb. 27 at 10:30 p.m. ET on MTV.

Photo credit: MTV